The month of March is very important around the world as the inventor of the Telephone Alexander Graham Bell was given a patent for his invention. Today, can we imagine our lives without the essential mode of communication? Of course, we live in an era of mobile phones where gaming, social media access, music player and intense communication happen at our fingertips. This is a device that gets our lives moving in different ways.

The first telephone instrument came into practical use in 1876 and the first telephone exchange was established at New Haven in 1878. In 1880, the Indian government was approached for permission to set up telephone exchanges in India by two companies The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd and Anglo-Indian Telephone Ltd. The proposal was refused initially but later in 1881, The government of India gave the license to Oriental Telephone company Ltd to establish telephone exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Karachi, and Ahmedabad. On 28^th January, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General’s Council announced the opening of the Telephone Exchange in Calcutta. Madras and Bombay. The ‘Central Exchange’ in Calcutta was opened on 30^th June 1882, later, from 1^st April 1943, the Indian Posts and Telegraph Departments took over the control of the Telephone system in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. The telephone system of Calcutta and other cities comes under Bharat Sanchar Nigam limited whereas Delhi and Mumbai come under Mahanagar Nigam Limited. 

Rotary Phones

The first form of the telephone in India was the Rotary phone. The design of the Rotary phone consisted of a dial and a receiver; for dialing, people had to rotate the digit circle by finger. Since a song was filmed on a hero holding the receiver and singing a song in the film ‘Sujata’, the phone was recognized as a symbol of romance.

Push-button Phones

Gradually, the phone became an essential gadget to have in every household. The telecommunication system was blooming across the country with the establishment of STD booths. At that time, Push-button phones were introduced which had a convenient dialing system of just pushing the digits.

Cordless Phones

Next came Cordless phones which were convenient in the way that you can take them anywhere. It gave people some privacy in conversation if they don’t want to talk Infront of others.

Pagers

Pagers were the most expensive ones at that time and were more commonly used in offices. They were less used by people because people found it difficult to type on a small device.

Mobile Phones

The biggest revolution in the phone industry in India came with the arrival of compact mobile phones. Initially, their usage was rare but the growth of Nokia phones made the device available for everyone. Since then, there was no looking back, the entire country has been dependent on this little device for a quick conversation.

Smart Phones From simple mobile phones to smartphones, people experienced significant digitized ways of communication along with the availability of different apps that made people access all information and entertainment sites.